Part II: Soldier Who Killed Herself -- After Refusing to Take Part in Torture

Yesterday, I posted a piece here that drew wide attention around the Web perhaps because of its tragic relevance to the current torture debate: The story of Spc. Alyssa Peterson, who committed suicide in September 2003 a few days after refusing to take part in interrogations that likely involved torture.

The piece has drawn more than 200 comments here, including one from Alyssa's older brother, supporting the essence of my piece (I first wrote about Alyssa almost three years ago). I'll return to that comment over the weekend.

Yesterday I promised a Part II, relating to a soldier who served with Alyssa. That woman, Kayla Williams, has posted here in the past, on a different subject.

They served in the same battalion in Iraq at the same time. Kayla Williams spoke with Alyssa Peterson about the young woman's troubles a week before she died -- and afterward, attended her memorial service. Williams even has her own Iraq interrogation horror story to tell. So what, in Williams' view, caused Alyssa Peterson to put a bullet in her head in September 2003 after just a few weeks in Iraq? And why were the press and the public not told about it?

The death of Alyssa Peterson is unspeakably sad, and what was fully in her mind will never be known, especially since her parents apparently knew little about her death until years after it happened. The press, which has rarely challenged the official version of Iraq fatalities, has not probed the incident, to this day (although it is featured in two chapters in my book on Iraq and the media), and crucial pieces of evidence have been redacted. But this tragedy also begs the question: Which interrogation techniques drew her ire?

And were they of such a nature that this might explain why this young woman of Mormon faith and, reportedly, good nature would suddenly turn a gun on herself?

The official Army investigation notes that all papers relating to the interrogations have been destroyed -- but confirms that she was extremely unnerved by them and asked to be excused. What do we know about what was going on in Iraq in 2003, beyond credible claims -- especially after the release of the torture memos and Senate committee report -- that treatment of prisoners was being "Gitmo-ized"?

Perhaps the most specific testimony that may relate to Alyssa Peterson comes from another Arabic-speaking female U.S. soldier who also served in the 101st Airborne at that time in the same region of Iraq. She even wrote a book partly about it. This is former Army sergeant Williams, author of the 2005 memoir, Love My Rifle More Than You. Much of the media publicity about the book focused on her accounts of sexual tension or harassment in Iraq, but it also holds several key passages about interrogations.

In the book, Williams, now 32 and out of the Army, described how she had been recruited to briefly take part in over-the-line interrogations. Like Peterson, she protested torture techniques -- such as throwing lit cigarettes at prisoners -- and was quickly shifted away. But she told me that she is still haunted by the experience and wonders if she objected strongly enough.

Williams and Peterson were both interpreters -- but only the latter was in "human intelligence," that is, trained to take part in interrogations. They met by chance when Williams, who had been on a mission, came back to the base in Tal Afar in September 2003 before heading off again. A civilian interpreter asked her to speak to Peterson, who seemed troubled. Like others, Williams found her to be a "sweet girl." Williams asked if she wanted to go to dinner, but Peterson was not free -- maybe next time, but of course time ran out.

Their one conversation, Williams told me two years ago, centered on personal, not military, problems, and it's hard to tell where it fit in the suicide timeline. According to records of the Army probe, Peterson had protested, and asked out of, interrogations after just two days in what was known as "the cage" -- and killed herself shortly after that. This might have all transpired just after her encounter with Williams, or it might have happened before and she did not mention it -- they did not really know each other.

Peterson's suicide on Sept. 15 -- reported to the press and public as death by "non-hostile gunshot," usually meaning an accident -- was the only fatality suffered by the battalion during their entire time in Iraq, Williams reports. At the memorial service, everyone knew the cause of her death.

Shortly after that, Williams (a three-year Army vet at the time) was sent to the 2nd Brigade's Support Area in Mosul, and she described what happened next in her book. Brought into the "cage" one day on a special mission, she saw fellow soldiers hitting a naked prisoner in the face. "It's one thing to make fun of someone and attempt to humiliate him. With words. That's one thing. But flicking lit cigarettes at somebody -- like burning him -- that's illegal," Williams writes. Soldiers later told her that "the old rules no longer applied because this was a different world. This was a new kind of war."

Here's what she told Soledad O'Brien of CNN: "I was asked to assist. And what I saw was that individuals who were doing interrogations had slipped over a line and were really doing things that were inappropriate. There were prisoners that were burned with lit cigarettes.

"They stripped prisoners naked and then removed their blindfolds so that I was the first thing they saw. And then we were supposed to mock them and degrade their manhood. And it really didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. I didn't know if this was standard. But it did not seem to work. And it really made me feel like we were losing that crucial moral higher ground, and we weren't behaving in the way that Americans are supposed to behave."

As soon as that day ended, after a couple of these sessions, she told a superior she would never do it again.

In another CNN interview, on Oct. 8, 2005, she explained: "I sat through it at the time. But after it was over I did approach the non-commissioned officer in charge and told him I think you may be violating the Geneva Conventions. . . . He said he knew and I said I wouldn't participate again and he respected that, but I was really, really stunned. . . ."

So, given all this, what does Williams think pushed Alyssa Peterson to shoot herself one week after their only meeting? The great unknown, of course, is what Peterson was asked to witness or do in interrogations. We do know that she refused to have anything more to do with that after two days -- or one day longer than it took for Williams to reach her breaking point.

Properly, Williams points out that it's rarely one factor that leads to suicide, and Peterson had some personal problems, to be sure. "It's always a bunch of things coming together to the point you feel so overwhelmed that there's no way out," Williams says. "I witnessed abuse, I felt uncomfortable with it, but I didn't kill myself, because I could see the bigger context.

"I felt a lot of angst about whether I had an obligation to report it, and had any way to report it. Was it classified? Who should I turn to?" Perhaps Alyssa Peterson felt in the same box.

"It also made me think," Williams says, "what are we as humans, that we do this to each other? It made me question my humanity and the humanity of all Americans. It was difficult, and to this day I can no longer think I am a really good person and will do the right thing in the right situation." Such an experience might have been truly shattering to the deeply religious Peterson.

Referring to that day in Mosul, Williams says, "I did protest but only to the person in charge and I did not file a report up the chain of command." Yet, after recounting her experience there, she asks: "Can that lead to suicide? That's such an act of desperation, helplessness, it has to be more than that." She concludes, "In general, interrogation is not fun, even if you follow the rules. And I didn't see any good intelligence being gained. The other problem is that, in situations like that, you have people that are not terrorists being picked up, and being questioned. And, if you treat an innocent person like that, they walk out a terrorist."

Or, maybe in this case, if an innocent person witnesses such a thing, some may walk out as a likely suicide.

Greg Mitchell's 2008 book on Iraq and the media, with a number of chapters on soldier suicides, was "So Wrong for So Long." His latest book is "Why Obama Won." He is editor of Editor & Publisher and can be reached at: [e-mail]

Previously:
U.S. Soldier Killed Herself -- After Refusing to Take Part in Torture

Comments

[Derelict outlaw]

No you are wrong. Suicide can be an act of murder, especially in young people.

Anger and violence not socially acceptable to be released and manifest against an all powerful other, is turned inward and expressed most violently and not passively with pills or suffocation, but with prejudice.

She was killed or wanted to kill. She was after all, a soldier.

[petef59]

government employees, in mundane day-today jobs, that reported simple anti-worker, anti-union harassment during the Bush administration were ignored by OIG and local media (after fluff pieces with no follow-up). Surprise,surpise all sorts of subtle harassment then increased. With most of the public brain-washed to think all gov't workers do nothing all day, the environment for abuse is perfect for the corporate fascists.
So, is anyone surprised that someone with extremely damaging information to the power elite either is harassed to the point of suicide, ignored at every level (career promotions are more important to most Americans than truth and justice), or somehow vanishes?

[Cranky Curmudgeon]

Continued:
Put a child killer in front of a camera and watch me work. I will cry and puke my guts up later, but that piece of crap will understand the anguish of the child's parents before I am done, and the video can be shown worldwide for greater effect.
Wartime actions? The Geneva Conventions are, and always has been a convenient fiction to justify the actions post-war or conflict. If you believe that extracting information with extreme measures may save your life or the life of someone else, either do it or do not complain when things go terribly wrong. Do not complain about the injustice of it all. Accept the fact that things might have been entirely different had you acted differently, whichever path you tread. Life is a bitch, and then you die. Hopefully having made a difference for the better.

[gorgonopsid]

Cranky--
You sound like me when I'm drunk. Not very melodious. Since Junior High School I have had no illusions about the propensity of humans for cruelty to each other, and I imagine that many people learned that lesson much earlier than I. As an adult, however, I feel that I must surmount the extreme boiling rage I feel towards those who hurt others and strive to do good without adopting the tactics of those who have hurt me or made me angry.

[Cranky Curmudgeon]

A sad fact of life needs be noted. Wars are nasty encounters between people who might otherwise be friends. That being said, there is more to this than that maxim I just made up. I, and most other people have a moral/ethical code that we go though life with. My ethics and morals are not anyone else's, and I will behave in the manner I find supportable within my code(s).
I am not adverse to torture unless it is used on children or the mentally deficient, or is allowed to be administered by those who crave it for personal titillation. Being a "child" is not of necessity always age related either. I have seen "children" kill with absolutely no compunction whatsoever. Their actions were not those of a rational adult, and were most often at the direct or indirect behest of some warped "adult", Sociopaths that were employed by authorities without a shred of humanity within them. Those bastards responsible, I would gladly torture, and would endeavour to find novel methods of making them feel the mental anguish they have inflicted on others. Whether any of you like it, approve of it, or detest it, there are exigencies demanded, no- required by the aberrant behaviour of others to deter repeated instances or imitation. Do I do this thing in a limited, directed fashion to prevent greater harm? Yes.

[Pema]

Who else thinks she may have been a victim of murder and not suicide?

[attilathehoneycom]

Dear Pema,
I'm sure that MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CNN, HUFF POST and MOVEON.ORG are all singing that same old tune. But you Nancys should understand one thing about war - people get killed, tortured, murdered and the one with the most toys wins. Sounds dreadful doesn't it - but that is the reality of war. Haven't any of you cry babies ever read your world history books? Nothing has changed nor will it change because man, in his ever increasing desire for power just can't stay in his own back yard and be happy. He has multiplied and divided himself so many times - he's lost touch with who he is - all in the name of peace.
I'm sorry about this female soldier - it's sad no matter the reason. But I have little sympathy for whiners or for those who sign up as soldiers then whine and write "tell all" stories to the National Enquirer. I call people like that Judas. I also don't understand all the female soldiers that leave their children and go off to war.
Where was your indignation when the terrorists where televising the cutting off of heads - shown the world over? How many Americans POWs are still in Viet Nam...yet you don't seem to bother much about them. How short the memory is. You only use this story to further your agenda - you care little about this poor girl.
Attila Honey

[PlayTOE]

Spc. Alyssa Peterson did more than refuse to take part in torture. She TOLD. She sent on a report, and began an investigation on how to get the story out.
The question "how do I get this story out to stop the torture" is essentially what she asked Kayla Williams.

For this, I consider her death to be suspicious, and consider suicide unlikely. When one has a burning desire to tell, they do not just shut themselves up permanently.

This death needs a FULL investigation.

[iplaw]

Congress should pass a law allowing soldiers to be excused from torture sessions. What kind of sick Freak would refuse a request to leave a torture? Can we get the name of that officer, I'd like to give him a call? Men have evolved to kill each other, but women evolved differently and shouldn't be sent into combat (perhaps they also don't handle torturing people well). Even the Spartans did not employ women in front line units.

The suicides will be the least of our problems. Once people get used to killing they may have trouble stopping even when they come home. I expect a huge increase in violent crime after the war.

[oldguru]

How about ...congress has ALREADY passed a law that there WILL NOT BE torture sessions.

[iplaw]

LOL funny. Since when has the government ever paid attention to any law?

[PlayTOE]

The USA should not be doing torture.
Congress should not regulate how it's done, the practice is BANNED internationally.

[iplaw]

We won't even ratify a treaty against using land mines.

[LadyXoc]

Soldiers are not required to comply with an unlawful order. Male or female.

[Cranky Curmudgeon]

" Even the Spartans did not employ women in front line units." No, the Spartans did not use women "in front line units... Spartan women were not used in ANY active military capacity. Spartan mothers were just the production end of the process, and not unwillingly, according to their own writings. A Spartan mother would disown any male child that was suspected to be not strong enough to survive, and many did just that and abandoned them to the elements as an infant for a period of time if they did not seem to be thriving. Exposure was the normal Spartan response to doubt of the child's ability make the grade. Please get accurate information prior to using things or people as examples.

[Gatogorra]

There's another reason for the elevated suicides in this war that few are reporting. Soldiers were being drugged at record rates with antidepressants which carry black box warnings for violence and suicide, all in order to recycle them back to duty or to numb them into going against conscience.

Roughly 6% of individuals who take these drugs will experience mania and a stunning 11% of emergency room admissions in the US are because of SSRI-induced mania and psychosis.

Traumatic, distressing events can often be the entree for an individual to seek psychiatric help so these incidents may frequently be associated with trauma, though people who simply took the drugs for migraines or because of a pharmacy error-- i.e., those without psychiatric history and with no prompting incident-- have murdered or killed themselves within a few days of taking these chemicals. The "trick" to the drugs seems to be that they can disable a critical part of the mind that would otherwise be alarmed at the person's own conduct and would associate it with the drug.

I have no idea if this young soldier was exposed to the medications, but this could very easily be a reason-- even beyond torture memos-- which might spur a cover-up of certain suicides. The family should be made aware of this possibility.

A few sites like Ghostship.com and SSRIstories.com are tracking antidepres­sant-induc­ed violence and bizarre behavior world-wide. The book, "Medication Madness" covers detailed case studies.

[Pip1860]

Thi is sick!

[abbeyroad]

i agree with MikeRdg.

something ain't clean in the milk.

[criquet]

What I am waiting to see is if any news organization other than FOX will have Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld or any of them on to spew their lies.
If they do I will not watch-no problem cause the "Tube thing " is better anyway.

[HenryRollins]

Did Obama ever respond to Cheney's challenge to actually disclose all the reports on the success of the interrogations? Obama for some odd reason did not want a full disclosure. I also hope we can get the minutes on Nancy Pelosi's involvement. Her answer to far is pretty laughable.

[iplaw]

LOL, it will be easier finding evidence of Bigfoot than any reports of good intel coming from torture. Thats why we didn't torture before Bush, it wasn't a good method for getting info. It's only good for getting false confessions that you bought "yellow cake" from Niger, or met with 911 hijackers in Iraq.

[HenryRollins]

MikeRdg, you sound like a typical anti-Mormon. Here this girl was so sensitive that she took her life and you use it to somehow attack members of the Latter-Day Saint Church. Pathetic. I have seen similar behavior from Fundamentalist Evangelicals who hate Mormons because they don;' believe exactly as they do. Spare us your hatred towards all things Mormon. May her soul rest in peace.

[MikeRdg]

This girl was not sensitive, she was a solider and trained. Nice to deflect by saying Anti Mormon, If the LDS leadership were not trying to cover up their involvement they would not be removing their memberships names who are involved and projecting on to other individuals. To state one is anti Mormon is just a way to try to silence any attention to the Mormon role. The references came from people who were or are LDS and from the SLC newspapers. Nothing, I repeat nothing came from Christian, or Southern sources, check the links buddy. Her death came within days, give if up bud, something isn't right.

[trunk65]

For all those that glorify war, and celebrate the carnage as a symbol of our might in the world, how can you not see it is not a video game or an action movie. This is the reality of it, a tortured, brave young warrior,who couldn't find her way back to any form of refuge or peace. We need to love our troops, and to extend them everything we can to help them survive an experience that few of us could endure. Then we need to go after the vain old men who put them in such a morally hideous position.

[Kd1978]

My husband, while serving his second tour in less than two years in Iraq, attempted suicide one year ago. He was sent back to the US and treated like a pariah by the Army, these men and women who were suppose to be his support and his friends. He is medically retired now, but we are still awaiting benefits and for him to get all of the help he needs. He has said many times that me and our children would have been better off if he had succeeded. He has mental and physical disabilities (none of which stem from the suicide attempt) that went unduagnosed and untreated during his time in the Army. He has little use of his left hand, a brain injury, asthma from breathing in salica sand for almost three years, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and permanent damage to his entire right side from a fall, he is also a carrier of MRSA. He is just ONE of the THOUSANDS of soldiers with similar or even more devestating disabilities.
I commend soldiers Peterson and Williams for standing up for their beliefs and not participating in torture and I also am saddened that one felt the need to end her life. More attention needs to be paid to the hell that these men and women are going through and how we as Americans can help, it is our duty to support them, as they participated in a war that many of them did not believe in.

[urnumbersix]

Amen.
And I will pray for your family. I'm so sorry.

[Kate Stoune]

My prayers go out to you, your husband, and family. There are so many vets that are suffering and it breaks my heart to read about it and see it. Please do research on cannabis medicines for your husband. It can really help the symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and pain. Also, a topical application of cannabis oil can actually kill the MRSA as recent studies out of the UK have proven.
Love to you and all the families who serve our country.

[Cranky Curmudgeon]

"My husband, while serving his second tour in less than two years in Iraq"..."asthma from breathing in salica sand for almost three years"...
Not to minimize your husband's distress, but how is it that arabs and Iranians have lived there for millennia and do not suffer from asthma or silica toxosis? I find that odd somehow.
I also must puzzle about that time-frame reference. It is confusing, I guess would be the right word?

[bigkay]

You are cranky and picky, the "Arabs" were born there they acclimated to their enviroment. Two, three, four, five tours to a war zone is going to have disastrous consequences for the men and women in the U.S. military.

[nonamenm]

Many Americans, myself included, were brought up to believe that we are the "good guys" precisely because we DON'T: launch preemptive wars; practice or defend torture; engage in warrantless spying on our own citizens; suspend habeus corpus; allow the President to wage an unjustifiable war solely for the monetary gain of his cronies or engage in a number of other abuses that became common practice during the the Bush administration.
I am in my mid-fifties and have been around long enough to become fairly cynical but I still experienced profound cognitive dissonance during the Bush era. Seemingly, the world had been turned upside-down. The experience was both Orwellian and Kafkaesque at the same time. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there more undisclosed suicides among young soldiers who were subjected to such intense pschological pressures.
I am able to partially console myself for the countless horrors of this shameful period in our history by believing that, if there is a Hell, there is a special place reserved for its planners and engineers.